Gas turbines are widely used in industrial and commercial operations. A typical gas turbine includes an inlet section, a compressor section, a combustion section, a turbine section, and an exhaust section. The inlet section cleans and conditions a working fluid (e.g., air) and supplies the working fluid to the compressor section. The compressor section increases the pressure of the working fluid and supplies a compressed working fluid to the combustion section. The combustion section mixes fuel with the compressed working fluid and ignites the mixture to generate combustion gases having a high temperature and pressure. The combustion gases flow to the turbine section where they expand to produce work. For example, expansion of the combustion gases in the turbine section may rotate a shaft connected to a generator to produce electricity.
The combustion section typically includes multiple combustors annularly arranged between the compressor section and the turbine section. A casing generally surrounds each combustor to contain the compressed working fluid flowing to each combustor, and one or more nozzles supply fuel to mix with the compressed working fluid before the mixture flows into a combustion chamber downstream from the nozzles. A liner circumferentially surrounds the combustion chamber to define at least a portion of the combustion chamber, and a flow sleeve may circumferentially surround at least a portion of the liner to define an annular plenum between the flow sleeve and liner through which the compressed working fluid may flow before entering the combustion chamber. An ignition device, such as a spark plug, may be used to initiate combustion in one combustion chamber, and one or more crossfire or crossover ignition tubes may be used to spread the combustion to adjacent combustors. For example, a crossfire tube may extend through the liner, flow sleeve, and casing of adjacent combustors to allow the combustion in one combustor to propagate to the adjacent combustor.
Although the crossfire tubes are effective at propagating combustion between adjacent combustors, the assembly and/or location of the crossfire tubes may have one or more disadvantages. For example, installation and removal of the crossfire tubes may result in damage to retention clips or other clamps used to hold the crossfire tubes in place. In addition, the crossfire tubes may create flow instabilities of the compressed working fluid flowing around the crossfire tubes in the annular plenum between the flow sleeve and the liner. In some combustor designs, fuel may be supplied through quaternary ports located between the crossfire tubes and the nozzles, and the flow instabilities around the crossfire tubes may create backflow regions that may draw burnable mixtures of fuel back toward the crossfire tubes, creating conditions more conducive to a flame holding event. Therefore, an improved crossfire tube assembly that addressed one or more of these concerns would be useful.